A review by cpwang65
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
5.0
The book covers a lifetime from the viewpoint of multiple characters. It starts out about a pair of brothers growing up in India in the Calcutta area. The brothers are close in age, about fifteen months apart. One brother grows up to be a revolutionary, while the other goes to graduate school (oceanography) in America, in Rhode Island, and ends up living the rest of his life there.
The brother who is a revolutionary, ends up getting killed, leaving behind a pregnant wife. His brother, comes back to India, marries his dead brother’s wife. She ends up coming to America and he ends up raising the daughter with his new wife.
The marriage is a lifeless one; the two of them really never do anything together. The wife manages to go back to university, and ends up getting her PhD (philosophy). When the husband and the daughter goes back to India after the death of the grandfather, they come back to find out the wife has left for a new job in California.
The daughter ends up growing up, doesn’t go to college, ends up becoming involved with farming / agricultural / growing organic things. After a long time away, the daughter returns to her father, with news that she is pregnant. The father decides to reveal to the daughter the truth about her real father. She storms away, but does return to live with her father to raise her child.
Meanwhile the father becomes involved with a woman who was once a teacher of his daughter. He asks his estranged wife to sign the papers for a divorce. She ends up coming in person, but the husband is away, but the daughter and grand daughter are there. There is a big scene, and the daughter lies to the daughter about who the visitor is. (The daughter has told people that her mother is dead).
The story is a very sad one, but the author has done a great job describing things from each person’s point of view. The ending is about the specifics of how the one brother died a long time ago.
The brother who is a revolutionary, ends up getting killed, leaving behind a pregnant wife. His brother, comes back to India, marries his dead brother’s wife. She ends up coming to America and he ends up raising the daughter with his new wife.
The marriage is a lifeless one; the two of them really never do anything together. The wife manages to go back to university, and ends up getting her PhD (philosophy). When the husband and the daughter goes back to India after the death of the grandfather, they come back to find out the wife has left for a new job in California.
The daughter ends up growing up, doesn’t go to college, ends up becoming involved with farming / agricultural / growing organic things. After a long time away, the daughter returns to her father, with news that she is pregnant. The father decides to reveal to the daughter the truth about her real father. She storms away, but does return to live with her father to raise her child.
Meanwhile the father becomes involved with a woman who was once a teacher of his daughter. He asks his estranged wife to sign the papers for a divorce. She ends up coming in person, but the husband is away, but the daughter and grand daughter are there. There is a big scene, and the daughter lies to the daughter about who the visitor is. (The daughter has told people that her mother is dead).
The story is a very sad one, but the author has done a great job describing things from each person’s point of view. The ending is about the specifics of how the one brother died a long time ago.